Leadership 333: Influence and Impact

  I took Leadership 333: Influence and Impact my junior year as an independent study with Jeff Boian.  Instead of taking the course as a traditional lecture, I met with Professor Boian intermittently throughout the semester to review the primary texts and concepts.  Due to the nature of the class being focused around four different books, the discussion shared hinged on these four books.  The concepts explored were found directly from the books.  The four books looked at were The Gift of Being Yourself by Benner, Same Kind of Different as Me by Hall and Moore, The Change Cycle by Salerno and Brock, and A Place at the Table by Seay.  The most impactful books were the first two and will be detailed below.  
The Gift of Being Yourself
  This book is focused on the importance of self-knowledge and value in introspection.  It comes from a Christian perspective and addresses the common Christian motif that Christians focus so much on service, knowing others and knowing God, that self discovery and introspection is lost.  Benner suggests that through knowing oneself, it is possible to better appreciate and realize who God is.  Besides the theological implications, Benner suggests that this self discovery and knowledge will improve an individual's ability to interact with others.  
  To me, the ability to know yourself allows you to be yourself.  Authenticity is something that may be difficult to define but it is something that humans innately can sniff out.  When someone is disingenuous, people can just tell.  A truly genuine person is able to better relate to others and connect at a more intimate level.  I would suggest that a person is able to become increasingly genuine with the amount of self knowledge they possess.  
Same Kind of Different as Me
  This book by Hall and Moore looked at the two sides of a story that involved incredible influence and impact.  Hall was a white, affluent arts dealer from Dallas who, through a series of events somewhat out of his own control, befriended a homeless African American man, Moore.  The story of how they arrived at the homeless shelter where they met is equally as incredulous as the story of their ensuing friendship.  There are multiple instances of difficulty between Hall and Moore as they learn more about each other but there is undeniable impact that they make in each other's lives.  It was interesting seeing how self-aware Moore was and how his self-assuredness led to his being able to influence Hall and they way Hall viewed himself and others.  I appreciated this book most because of the practicality.  It was a perfect model for how to navigate an interpersonal relationship for maximal impact and showed an example of two people learning about each other and themselves which resulted in influencing many others for the better.